Vegan frittata with sausage & kale

Do yourself a favor and make a vegan frittata.

It has a beautifully creamy yet firm texture. Then it’s dotted with chewy seitan sausage, red bell pepper, and kale.

You get umami from white miso paste, and cheesiness from nutritional yeast flakes. Finally, there’s paprika, ancho chili powder, and cumin with a pinch of turmeric for color.

If you make it on Sunday, you can simply reheat slices throughout the week.

It’s so convenient knowing a delicious breakfast is just waiting for you in the refrigerator. It’s also eye-catching enough for a Christmas morning breakfast.

To fill out the meal, add breakfast potatoes or an air fried hash brown patty.

In this post:

Here are the ingredients you will need to make this recipe.

Raw cashews: Raw cashews add creaminess, richness, and protein. I recommend using raw cashew pieces, as they tend to be less expensive than whole cashews. Look for them with other nuts at the grocery store.

Non-dairy milk: Use unsweetened, unflavored non-dairy milk. (Vanilla milk won’t work here.) Choose your preferred store-bought or homemade non-dairy milk like cashew, soy, or almond milk.

Hot sauce: A little hot sauce adds a tiny kick of heat. Red jalapeno pepper hot sauce is my favorite.

White miso paste: This fermented soybean paste adds salt and umami. Look for it in the refrigerated section of the grocery store near the tofu.

Stoneground mustard: Grainy mustard adds tang. It can be replaced with yellow or Dijon mustard.

Nutritional yeast flakes: This inactive yeast adds cheesiness and umami. It’s often sold in the health food area of the grocery store or near packaged flours. I buy mine at Trader Joe’s.

Seasonings: Granulated onion, paprika, cumin, ancho chili powder, turmeric, kala namak, and turmeric add delicious flavor. Ancho chili powder is made with one ingredient – dried ancho chilies. It’s flavorful but not hot. It can be replaced with standard chili powder, if you prefer, which is a blend of spices.

Kala namak is what gives this dish its eggy flavor. It’s a sulfurous salt you can find at Indian grocery stores or online.

Oil: Use any neutral-flavored cooking oil to brown the vegan bacon or sausage + veggies. Avocado oil is my go-to option.

Vegan bacon or sausage: For vegan bacon or sausage, Herbivorous Butcher and Upton’s Naturals make delicious seitan-based products. For gluten-free options, choose Beyond or Impossible sausage. Or go with your preferred vegan meat option.

Vegetables: Red bell pepper, onions, and kale finish out the dish with nutrients, color, and mouthwatering flavor.

Here’s how to make this recipe at a glance. For complete ingredient amounts & instructions, keep scrolling to the recipe card below.

1. Soak raw cashew pieces to soften them.

You can cover them in boiling water, or microwave them until the water is hot.

Then let them soak for ten minutes or more. Drain.

(If you don’t have a high-speed blender, you’ll want to soften the cashews even more by soaking for several hours. Or you can grind dry raw cashews in a coffee grinder, and then add the pulverized cashews to a standard blender.)

2. Add the following to a high-speed blender:

• Soaked & drained raw cashews
• Non-dairy milk
• Stone-ground mustard
• Hot sauce
• White miso paste
• Super firm tofu (from a vacuum-packed package)

Blend until smooth.

If you have a Vitamix, this is a great time to get the tamper involved. Otherwise, stop occasionally to scrape down the sides.

Once it’s smooth, add the following to the blender:

• Nutritional yeast flakes
• Granulated onion
• Paprika
• Cumin
• Ancho chili powder
• Turmeric
• Kala namak (also known as black salt)

Blend until it’s mostly incorporated.

(If it’s not completely incorporated, it’s not a deal breaker, because you’ll be mixing it with other ingredients shortly.)

3. Now it’s time to make your vegetable filling.

In a skillet, brown veggie sausage (or seitan bacon), onions, red bell pepper, and kale over medium heat.

Then in a mixing bowl, combine the tofu mixture with the vegetable filling until evenly incorporated.

4. Put the tofu mixture in a greased pie pan. Sprinkle with a little more paprika for color. Then bake.

This vegan tofu frittata recipe is rife with variation options. That makes it a super handy recipe for cleaning out the fridge.

You don’t need a lot of any one ingredient. And you can tweak it depending on your preferences & produce drawer.

Vary the vegetables

Replace any of the vegetables with an equal amount of jarred artichoke hearts, steamed broccoli, chopped spinach, red onion, cubed cooked potato, asparagus, zucchini, sautéed mushrooms, and/or diced tomato.

You basically want 2 cups of filling in total. Use whatever suits you.

Vary the sausage or bacon

This eggless frittata is great with any veggie sausage or bacon you like.

Herbivorous Butcher sausage, ham, hickory bacon, or maple bacon are all terrific choices.

Field Roast breakfast sausage, Upton’s Naturals bacon, chorizo seitan, or Italian seitan are good here too.

Add non-dairy cheese

Nutritional yeast adds a nice cheesy flavor to the frittata.

You can make it even cheesier by replacing a ½ portion of one of the vegetables with the non-dairy cheese of your choice.

Vegan feta cheese would be lovely with jarred artichoke hearts, cooked potato, and asparagus!

Replace ancho chili powder

Instead of using ancho chili powder, season with berbere. It’s one of my favorite Ethiopian spices. And it plays really nicely with all of the other seasonings.

Omit kala namak

Kala namak is an Indian salt with a sulfurous flavor. You can find it at Indian grocery stores or online.

However, if you’re not into eggy flavors or can’t source kala namak, simply omit it. There’s plenty of flavor without it.

Make mini quiche bites instead

For an on-the-go option, make crustless vegan quiche bites instead (shown above). They’re like vegan egg muffins that can be cooked in the oven or air fryer.

With vegan frittata you can lean into the breakfast direction with potatoes or more towards brunch with roasted vegetables & salad.

Here are some side dish recipes that work well:

• Breakfast potatoes in the air fryer or oven
• Air fryer asparagus
• Fall salad with apples & candied pecans
• Spinach salad with strawberries
• Lemony potatoes
• Roasted delicata squash

Store leftover frittata in a covered container in the refrigerator. Or wrap the pie plate tightly in plastic wrap.

It will keep for 3 or 4 days.

Reheat slices in the microwave. Microwave in 30 second intervals until warm. (Or the frittata can also be eaten cold.)

Leftovers can also be frozen. To freeze, cut remaining frittata into slices. Wrap each slice in plastic wrap. Then put them in a freezer safe container or bag.

When you’re ready to enjoy it, move individual slices to the refrigerator to thaw. Once thawed, reheat as listed above.

📖 Recipe

Vegan frittata with sausage & kale

Author: Cadry Nelson

5 from 3 votes

Nothing says brunch like a comforting slice of vegan frittata. It's dotted with vegetables in a creamy tofu & cashew filling.

It's great for holiday breakfasts or meal planning. Make it on the weekend, then just reheat on weekday mornings.

Print Pin Rate

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes minutes

Cooling time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 7 slices

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American, Vegan

Keyword: brunch, egg free

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 teaspoon avocado oil or other neutral-flavored oil, divided
• ▢ ½ cup raw cashew pieces soaked ahead of time if necessary & drained
• ▢ 3 Tablespoons non-dairy milk
• ▢ ½ teaspoon hot sauce
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon white miso paste
• ▢ 1 teaspoon stoneground mustard
• ▢ 16 ounces super firm tofu in vacuum packaging**
• ▢ 6 Tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
• ▢ ½ teaspoon granulated onion
• ▢ ½ teaspoon paprika plus extra for sprinkling on top as garnish
• ▢ ½ teaspoon cumin
• ▢ ½ teaspoon ancho chili powder or berbere
• ▢ ½ teaspoon kala namak a.k.a. black salt***
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon turmeric
• ▢ ½ cup seitan sausage or bacon, cut in small, bite-sized pieces****
• ▢ ½ cup red bell pepper chopped
• ▢ ½ cup onions chopped
• ▢ ½ cup curly kale chopped (Basically one handful)

Instructions

• ▢
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a pie pan with about ½ teaspoon of oil. (I used a glass pie pan, but any type is fine.) Set aside.
• ▢
  If you have a high speed blender you can soak for the raw cashews for a shorter amount of time than if you're using a standard blender. Put the raw cashews in a bowl and cover them with hot water (even just microwaving them in water until hot works fine). Let them soak in the hot water for at least 10 minutes. Then drain & continue with the recipe.

  If you don't have a high speed blender, cover the raw cashews with hot or cold water and allow them to soak for several hours to soften. Then drain & continue with the recipe. (There are more workaround ideas in the comments.)
• ▢
  For easiest blending, I recommend putting the soft or liquid ingredients into the blender pitcher first. Put soaked & drained raw cashews, non-dairy milk, hot sauce, white miso paste, and stoneground mustard into the blender pitcher. Then crumble the super firm tofu into the blender pitcher. Blend until smooth.

  If you're using a Vitamix blender, press the ingredients with a tamper to get everything fully blended. If not, stop occasionally to scrape down the sides, so that everything gets evenly combined and there are no whole pieces of cashew left.
• ▢
  Now it's time to add the dry ingredients to the blender. Add nutritional yeast flakes, granulated onion, paprika, cumin, ancho chili powder (or berbere), kala namak, and turmeric. Blend to combine.

  (If it doesn't get completely incorporated, that's okay. You'll have a chance to mix it more evenly in a second.)
• ▢
  Bring a skillet to a medium heat. Add remaining ½ teaspoon oil to the skillet along with seitan bacon or sausage. Brown for a couple minutes.

  Then add red bell pepper, onions, and curly kale. Cook for two or three minutes more, until the kale is softened & bright green. You don't have to worry about getting everything super cooked, because it will cook further in the oven.
• ▢
  In a large mixing bowl, combine the tofu mixture from the blender with the vegetable mixture from the skillet. Make sure everything is evenly incorporated and combined by using a spoon or your your hands.

  (If you're using your hands, just make sure the vegetable mixture isn't too hot, so that you don't get burned.)
• ▢
  Move the tofu mixture to the reserved greased pie pan. Use a knife or rubber spatula to smooth the top. Sprinkle with more paprika for extra color.
• ▢
  Move to the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
• ▢
  Remove from oven and allow it to cool & firm for about 10 minutes until slicing.

Notes

*If you don’t have a high speed blender & want to make this frittata in less time, you can use a clean coffee grinder instead of soaking the cashews. Grind the dry raw cashews in a coffee grinder until they’re the texture of powder or flour. Then move the ground cashews to the standard blender with the other ingredients.

**For this recipe, I use vacuum packed tofu that doesn’t need to be pressed. If you’re using water-packed tofu, just drain and give the tofu a squeeze. Most water-packed tofu comes in 14 ounce packages. So you’ll need a little more than one package for this recipe. If you want to be exact, use a kitchen scale.

***Kala namak (also known as black salt) is a sulfurous salt that adds an eggy flavor to dishes. You can find it online or in Indian markets. If you don’t have access to kala namak, use an equal amount of regular table salt instead. It won’t add an eggy flavor, of course, but it will still taste good.

For the sausage or bacon, I like Herbivorous Butcher, Upton’s Naturals, or Field Roast.

For a gluten-free option, replace the seitan bacon or sausage with the vegetable of your choice. Or use Beyond Meat or Impossible sausage, which are gluten-free. If you’re using Beyond Meat or Impossible, I recommend cooking them in a separate pan, because they release a lot of oil. Then add them to the other ingredients once cooked.

The filling is open to variation. The sausage, onions, bell pepper, and kale can be replaced with 2 cups of the vegetables, vegan meats, or non-dairy cheeses of your choice.

To reheat the frittata, warm individual slices in the microwave for about a minute.

Recipe adapted from Somer‘s retirement quiche.

Subscribe to Cadry’s KitchenSign up today! JOIN BY CLICKING HERE

Nutrition

Calories: 147kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 202mg | Potassium: 378mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 954IU | Vitamin C: 21mg | Calcium: 48mg | Iron: 2mg